When I first began exploring
the often imposing and sometimes unfamiliar concepts contained within the
revelations of The Urantia Book, I found myself scribbling down rough-hewn
notes and diagrams representative of the many crisscrossing conceptual byways
that presented themselves to my mind. These resulting notations and charted
illustrations became memory-inducing milestones for my later study and referral.
In particular, the graphic treatments gave me a reassuring sense of direction.
The many illustrations contained within the body of this book have evolved
as a result of my attempts to hold onto those inspirational developments of
thought as they presented themselves during my excursions through The Urantia
Book. Even today, they continue to help me add real substance to the formational
concepts that run throughout the pages of these revelations.

When I read The Urantia
Book, initial insights allow me to briefly understand perfectly, but this
intellectual grasp quickly gets fuzzy unless I take the effort to reconstruct
these insights by working them out on paper. I always attempt to visualize
the elevated concepts of The Urantia Book as these become receptive to my
grasp. That is really the purpose of what I am doing, particularly with my
illustrations - I am trying to capture, as one would do with a photograph,
moments of personal comprehension. I believe the text itself is structured
throughout the book in such a way as to psychologically spur these intended
activities in our minds. Much that is presented in The Urantia Book reveals
only the tip of this iceberg we all perceive as reality. Repeated study of
The Urantia Book literally begs further inspection for uncovering new and
hidden interrelationships.

Effective illustration is
always difficult, because, in many ways, each construct of an attempted conceptual
relationship is usually shortsighted in some intellectual facet. Sometimes
I must make symbolic concessions that have the unfortunate effect of diluting
the truth of the concept I am trying to convey. The Urantia Book revelators
readily admit to these same shortcomings. They often share with us the admission
that their attempts to present high concepts to the mortal mind using human
words are wholly inadequate for conveying the full "truth". I am continually
finding myself in awe as I discover time and again the many original and effective
techniques that the revelators employed in organizing the various subject
matters covered in the Book. Visual images readily come into play when I am
reading The Urantia Book. I am sure this is not accidental.

The revelators are quite
brilliant in the way they use our English language to convey to us their many
concepts. I would suppose that, as readers and scholars, we naturally become
more and more attuned to the scope and depth of their intended meanings. I
truly believe that our progressively spiritualizing minds achieve an almost
transcendent sense of their conceptual imagery. I sometimes wonder if they
do not actually plant "seed" concepts into their applied words and phrases
that eventually become implanted and nurtured in our minds to such an extent
that, possibly, they might help to enrich our mortal thoughts. Certainly,
our Guardian Seraphim must help in this conceptualizing of these borderline
spiritual thoughts.

The Urantia Book uses words
and concepts as one would use vanilla extract in preparing a cake - a few
drops carry a potent influence. Even more importantly, I am gaining insight
into the wisdom of the revelatory mandates for carefully balancing pure revelation
with conceptual patterns having had origin in mortal adjutant mind. This creativity
is exercised by the revelators in the maintaining of a healthy respect for
the very spirit of these restrictive mandates while still allowing for the
delivery of a fullness of revelatory breath and scope in their narratives.
They provide for a perfect coordination of these two modes of exposition.
They forge bravely ahead with a bounty of new and revelatory ideas while at
the same time they provide for the stabilizing anchor that acknowledges the
very best that evolved human tradition and ideational practice has secured
for our present-day civilization. This delicate handiwork is very much in
harmony with the measured balance provided by the equipoised activities of
the Angels of the Churches and the Angels of Progress.